Transcript Sociology: Then And Now

The American Value
System
Chapter 3 – Section 1
Traditional American Values
• Personal Achievement
– Based on believe in individualism and
competition
– Evident in employment, and measured in
power and wealth
• Individualism
– Base for personal achievement
– Ones success comes from hard work and
initiative
• Work
– Always valued
– Not based on rewards
– Mostly seen as virtue
• Morality and Humanitarianism
– U.S. founded on religious faith, justice and
equality
– Charity towards the less fortunate big part of
American life
• Efficiency and Practicality
– Every problem has a solution
– Objects judged on usefulness
– People judged on their ability to get things
done
• Progress and Material Comfort
– With hard work and determination, living
standards will improve
– Science and technology make the world a
better place
• Equality and Democracy
– Human equality = equality of opportunity and
equal chance of success
– Citizens have the right to express their
opinions and choose their representatives in
government
• Freedom
– People have personal choice
– Protection from direct government
interference in business and daily life
• Other Core Values
– Education
– Religious values
– Romantic love
– Self-fulfillment
– Environment
Changing Values
• Self-fulfillment
– Development of one’s personality, talents
and potential
– Narcissism
Social Control
Chapter 3 – Section 2
Internalization of Norms
• Internalization
– Norms become part of the personality of an
individual
– Individual conforms to society’s expectation
Sanctions
• Sanctions – motivations for people to
enforce conformity to the norms of
society
• Positive Sanctions
– Rewards for a particular, expected behavior
• Parents give rewards with praise
• Teacher reward students for turning in good
work
• Negative Sanctions
– Punishment or threat of punishment are used
to enforce conformity
• Ridicules, fines, imprisonment or death
• Formal Sanctions
– Reward or punishment given by organization
or regulatory agency
• Negative: Low grades, suspension, termination or
imprisonment
• Positive: Graduation certificates, raises in pay,
promotion and awards
• Informal Sanctions
– Spontaneous approval or disapproval by a
group or individual
• Positive: standing ovations, compliments, smiles
and gifts
• Negative: gossips, insults, and ridicules
Social Control
• Social control is self-control
– Internalization of norms
– Agents perform external enforcement
Social Change
Chapter 3 – Section 3
Sources of Social Change
• Values and Beliefs
– Ideology
• System of ideas or beliefs that justifies the social,
moral, religious, political, or economic interests
held by a group or society
– Social Movement
• Long-term conscious effort to promote or
prevent social change
• Technology
– Knowledge and tools that people use to
manipulate their environment
– New technologies evolve through discovery
and invention
• Population
– Changes in population will bring changes in
culture
– Cultural changes also result from changes in
the average age of the population
– Diffusion
• Spread of cultural traits from one society to
another
– Reformulation
• Adapting borrowed cultural traits
• Physical Environment
– Environment provides conditions that
encourage or discourage cultural change
• Wars and Conquests
– Not common source of cultural change, but
result in the greatest change
Resistance to Change
• Ethnocentrism
– The tendency to view one’s own culture or
group as superior to others
– Ethnocentrism makes cultural borrowing
difficult or impossible
• Cultural Lag
– The rapid change of some traits, and the
transformation of others that take a long
time
• Vested Interests
– A persons resist any change that threatens
their security or standard of living